The Effects of Television Violence on Teens and Children

In recent years technology had advanced and evolved rapidly. With new technology surfacing on the market daily we see a variety of new forms of entertainment. I can remember when children spent the majority of their time outside playing. Today children spend most of their time indoors watching television, movies, and playing video games. Some hardly ever leave their bedrooms, (Browne and Hamilton-Giachritsis 702). It is believed that most of these children have some sort of gamming system. Most of the television shows, movies and video games that children are exposed to contain some kind of violence in them which can have an adverse effect on child audiences that are exposed to them.

The Effects of Television Violence on Teens and Children

If children are exposed to violence on a regular basis they become desensitized to the effects of violence. Games that are high in violence created a compulsion to play and resulted in two men ending so many lives in Littleton, make our children more active participants in simulated violence (Quotes: Media Violence). A quote from President Bill Clinton, after the Columbine High School Massacre in Littleton, Colorado.

The Effects of Media Violence

Media violence has a considerable effect on youth of all ages, it has noted that children are susceptible to any kind of media violence weather it is video, television, books music or any other form. The average young person will have viewed a projected 200,000 deeds of violence on television alone, by only the age of 18 (Media Violence). The assumption is violence in the media predisposes youth to aggressive behavior which is linked to cognation and decreasing pro-social behavior.

Statistics Show

American children view around 200,000 acts of violence and 25,000 murders on television by their eighteenth birthday." ("How Media Use Affects Your Child", 2018

People under the age of eighteen that were arrested for violent crimes rose forty-seven percent from 1988 to 1992. (Huesmann). A 130,296 participant study, found increased levels of aggressive behavior were directly related to exposure to violent video games (Anderson et. al 160). On average children and adolescents spend an average of 25 hours watching violent media and an average of 9 hours on violent gamming (Polman De Castro and Van Aken 256).

Education and Development.

Due to increased television viewing and gamming less time is spent on education. Children and adolescents study less resulting in poor academic performances. Even less time is spent on developing social hobbies and sports. Short attention spans and decreased physical activity (Comstock and Scharrer 103).

Perception.

When watching television children and adolescent process what is happening based on prior experience and what they perceive, due to their age and immature abilities they may not be able to process the content they are viewing on television. Most of the time children are not able to understand or interpret what it is they are watching.

Aggressive Behavior.

When we look at children who play video games and watch movies for extended periods of time we see an increase in aggressive behavior compared to children who are monitored and my only play a few hours per week. Children who participate in extreme exposure were prone to physical violence, and believed it was more acceptable to engage in peer to peer contact

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